Recap: Cavs 104, Nets 97 (Or, Long Live The Status Quo)

Overview: The Nets put up a surprisingly good fight against the Cavaliers, but the Cavs were able to keep the Nets at bay throughout, winning 104-97 without ever being in real danger. LeBron James finished with 32 points and 11 assists, and Jawad Williams added a career-high 17 points.

Cavs-Related Bullets:

The Cavs got punched in the mouth early by a game Nets team, but managed to keep their cool. The Nets came out with more energy, and Jarvis Hayes was able to pour in some deep jumpers to get the Nets out to an early lead.

The Cavs didn’t execute well early on offense, and had trouble finding scoring outside of LeBron. A big moment came at the end of the first quarter; the Cavs were down 7 with 43 seconds left to play in the period, but LeBron caught the Nets watching him on consecutive possessions. He found Jamario Moon and Jawad Williams for open three-pointers behind back-screens, and the Cavs were able to cut the lead to one by the end of the quarter.

The 2nd unit may have been the star of this one. The Cavs outscored the Nets 17-9 during the six minutes LeBron sat, with most of the damage coming from Shaq punishing the Nets inside. At one point, he was able to get Tony Battie off his feet with a beautiful series of up-fakes and slam it in; when I first saw it, I thought Shaq had pulled a veteran move on one of the Nets’ young players. Then I saw he pulled the move on Battie, who may have invented fire. Great stretch for Shaq.

Hickson made some nice plays, but looked absolutely lost on defense. Mike Brown was not amused, and Hickson got only 14 minutes of burn against the Nets. Since the Nets are a team that Hickson should be comfortable against, this was a tough setback to witness.

Fortunately, Jawad played very well, scoring 17 points and looking confident from beyond the arc.

Varejao had a great game, making some beautiful cuts through the Nets’ defense and making some slick layups in tight spaces. He also added six offensive boards, and looked like one of the few Cavs taking the game seriously.

LeBron was able to get to the rim at will, converting nine field goals off the rim. He did a particularly good job of moving without the ball, and seven of those nine layups or dunks were assisted. The Nets had no idea how to defend the Cavs’ inside-out game, and Shaq finished with five assists.

LeBron had a poor game from outside, making only two of his 10 shots outside the paint. He was able to contribute 11 assists, and continues to flourish as the Cavs’ primary playmaker.

Z had a rough night. He finished 1-10 from the field, and looked lost defensively. The low point for Z was when he missed four shots on one ugly volleyball possession, got his dunk blocked by Kris Humphries the next time down, then picked up a T arguing for a foul. Very rare to see Z lose his composure.

LeBron had to play the entire fourth quarter, but didn’t play it particularly hard. He looked like he was toying with the Nets the entire quarter, attempting flashy passes and ball-handling moves around the perimeter. When the Nets got close, LeBron would slice right into the paint and get easy points. LeBron likes to experiment when the game is comfortably in hand but not quite a blowout. It’s part of the experience.

Anthony Parker with an ugly -13 in 26 minutes. One thing the Delonte injury has made clear is that AP is a starter in name only. Show starting AP is probably the best way to use him, but he’s not a guy I’d be comfortable with playing 30 or more minutes in the games that matter.

Bullets of Randomness:

The Cavs may have stopped taking the Nets seriously when their first possession involved no passes and ended with Keyon Dooling taking a foot-on-the line jumper off the dribble with plenty of time on the shot clock. The Nets are really bad at offense.

I dont know why Lebron was even in at the end of the game, he looked bored to me and the game was in hand, the bench was playing great and the more time that Danny Green gets the better, I wish MB would have subbed him out, the box score showed 42 mins for LeBron but he only played about 32

Your comments about AP show the limits of the plus/minus system. AP Ayer very well. Hit some jumpers and had three huge steals last night. I can only assume you didn’t watch the game in it’s entirety.

I find it curious how quick you are to slam, variously, Shaq, JJ and AP but continue to almost excuse the play
of Z. The guy, who is supposed to be good-to-great jump shooter, essentially hasn’t hit a non-3 in about a month. And the way he gives up lay-ups to driving small guys makes me LONG for JJ’s defense!

Please stop using plus/minus so much, ok? It’s only somewhat useful in analysis…

I am kinda with KJ. Kris Humphries embarrassed Z on that play. I love Z and hope he is in Cleveland for a championship, but he is becoming more and more limited in what he can do. And Anthony Parker is one of the top 3 point shooters in the league and has played solid defense for most of the year against some great players. I can think of worse players to play big minutes in big games.

This was a fairly uneventful game (outside of the Shaq block, Bron to Andy oop, of course). At no point during this game did it seem like the Cavs would lose. You also got the feeling that the Cavs were just trying to get through this game, so they can prepare for Orlando.

Overall, I’d say the Cavs were around a C-, while the Nets probably played at a B level…. which wasn’t good enough to get the job done (for the Nets).

Agree with Colin – classic “looking ahead” game. In a long season, you are bound to drop one or two of these types of games that make you go…how the hell did the Nets beat the Cavs? if you look back at the season.

It’s actually kind of nice to read that the Cavs were kind of flat and still won. I’m sure they won’t play that way against Orlando on Thursday.

I really don’t think the Cavs were as flat as everyone thinks. The Nets really did play very well and it isn’t because the Cavs let them. The Nets only had 30 points in the paint, which is a sign of good defense, but the Nets still shot 51%. I mean a team that is as bad as the Nets you want taking jumpshots and not getting easy buckets at the rim. They just happened to make them tonight. The cavs only had 9 turnovers and in the end out rebounded the Nets (only by 1). So its hard to say the cavs were just going through the motins.

Z was terrible, there is no doubt. JJ was just as bad though. The first quarter when he was out there was when the cavs were at their worst and it absolutely coincides with Hickson being on the court. Yi…YI was dominating the boards with JJ on him…I’m thinking he got 2 offensive boards and another 2 defensive boards in the first 6 minutes with JJ guarding him. That is just not good at all.

John probably hates KJ, because KJ has only posted negative comments for about 113 years. KJ sucks. I’m pretty sure John did watch the entire game, because that’s sorta what his thing is on here. For what it’s worth, AP has the worst Win% on the Cavs this year. Even when you account for the intangible ability to “space the floor” his % is so low that it’s pretty clear he’s a weakness. If you think Anthony Parker is going to shoot 45% from 3 in the playoffs, you’re extremely optimistic. Once his 3 leaves him (35-37%), I don’t see AP having any real value.

good points, rick. i haven’t seen a team keep shooting and making jumpers like that in a looong time. usually those jumpers stop falling in the 4th…

the thing with Z is he HAS been this terrible on D for a while now. people seem, however, to go out of their way to ignore it or excuse it. now, does Z help us with the lakers? you bet. but that is essentially all he is good for right now. again, he has not hit a non-3 jumper in FOREVER! and that is supposed to be his STRENGTH!

i really, really, hope powe comes back as close to his old self as possible because he man-handled the lakers front line and he could be the antidote to worrying about Z out there and also the answer whether we should trade Z or not…

Kj- I do. 48 minutes of them. In honor of you, I’m going to end every post like this…… so that people can tell I’m super serious……

AP hasn’t looked very productive to me, I mean, what do you want me to say? I think it’s understood that John watches the games and thus recaps them. And like usual, you comment and tell John that his analysis is wrong. He even said Z was bad last night, he didn’t make excuses for him. And because he said AP had an unproductive night, you say he didn’t watch the game. No, KJ, I’m pretty sure he did. But thanks for playin……………………………………………………………………………….

In defense of Z, I think when he got blocked it was pretty obviously a foul. Give the guy a break! He went up strong for the dunk, got hit on the arm, and missed because of it. I would’ve lost my composure if that happened to me too. As for his defensive liabilities, I really wonder why we see so many of our guys as liabilities (JJ, Shaq, Z) and yet we give up points in the paint sparingly and we have one of the best defenses in the NBA year after year. That doesn’t make sense to me. Obviously whatever Z is doing is working quite well because WE’VE WON 12 STRAIGHT GAMES. And last time I checked, Z has played in all of them recently. Hmm, maybe not as much of a liability as you think?

I have a prediction about Kobe for the 2012 Olympics, assuming he is healthy and can play. I think the emerging theme that following NBA season will be how Kobe learned to be more of a role player on that team. I don’t know if there’s a place for him on the floor in the 4th quarter by 2012. He’s not taking LeBron’s spot, Wade’s spot, Durant’s spot, Melo’s spot, Paul’s spot, (John Wall’s spot, dare I conjecture?) Those guys don’t necessarily play his position, but that’s at least 5/6 people who have to be on the floor instead of him, not even including centers. At best he gets a show start on the team in 2012.

if john wall should not be playing the 4th qtr ahead of kobe on the 2012 or 2016 national team. i think kobe is vastly overrated but to think that some kid in college is going to be better than him is crazy. Kobe brings far superior shooting, defense, and experience.

john’s analysis is wrong on occasion. what, do you think he’s infallible? if you or he watched the game, than i fail to see how you could think AP was ineffective. he hit some shots, played pretty good D that DIRECTLY contribute to outdoing NJ is fast-break points by a huge margin, etc. i truly don’t know what the hell you were watching if you didn’t see that. and john OVERUSES plus/minus. Z is a GREAT example of how plus/minus doesn’t really tell us much by itself.

and gimme a break on the Z thing. john, like seemingly so many other cavs fans, is quick to throw new guys like shaq, AP and to some degree JJ, under the bus at the merest sign of trouble or whatnot while ignoring how bad Z has been for over a month now. john mentioned how bad JJ was EVERY recap a few weeks ago. and he also went on and on about shaq early in the year as people like me told him he was crazy. and he was. shaq proved his analyis wrong.

relax, bradley. assuming your not related to john or a sockpuppet, there’s no reason to be so defensive about a blog…

our defense is frequently good DESPITE Z’s contributions. the only thing he does somewhat well is rebound on the defensive end. he is BY FAR the worst pick and roll defending big we have on the roster and to me and austin carr’s eternal frustration, he let’s guards drive by him to the hoop for lay-ups instead of fouling, like shaq frequently does and make the little guy earn it at the stripe AND make him think twice about coming in the lane again. we’ve seen how effective shaq has been with that this year, shouldn’t Z have taken notice by now?

and again, he hasn’t hit the jumper at all in about a month. that is supposed to be his strength, no? unless we’re playing LA or ORL, Z is nearly useless.

now, i’ll admit, those are two *big* caveats to my “Z is useless” meme. but i feel like powe could take Z’s place easily but that is a gamble, no question, due to the type of injury powe is returning from…

They had spurts of activity, but on the whole, they were fairly flat. When they wanted to put the game away, they did (beginning of the fourth).

But instead of arguing whether they played played poorly or not, how about the fact that they were flat and they were still killing it offensively? This team is a juggernaut on offense, which is hard for non Cavs fans to understand since everyone thinks Mike Brown is such a bad offensive coach.

kj, Z’s individual skills are indeed horrible. He’s slow, he doesn’t foul hard, and he’s not necessarily all that efficient.

However, he’s still shooting at 45%, he’s still getting almost a block every game (.8 BPG) and his PER is 12.77. That’s certainly not very good, but that’s not a huge liability either. Z’s biggest strength is that he seems to fit very well into the team defense and the team offense. Personally, I can’t remember Z ever fouling anybody hard. So maybe instead of racking up useless fouls, he’s just letting them go by and staying out of foul trouble. Right now he’s tied his career low for personal fouls, so at least that’s working. It’s not a good alternative, but it’s better than giving up a bunch of And-1’s.

Also, what in the world makes you think Powe could take Z’s spot? Honestly, I’m defending Z mostly because of my loyalty to him, but this is the one thing you put out there that I really cannot understand. Powe is a 6’8″ forward, not a 7’3″ center. Yes, he’s very strong and physical, but he’s not a center! He plays a completely different position, and doesn’t have the size to be an effective rim patrolman. Sure, he’s more mobile than Z (assuming he recovers well) but he doesn’t have the size to take that role, Chuck Hayes notwithstanding.

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Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

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